WBR Overview: Better Late than Never

Left: Some gents fiddling with my camera at the first bicycle distribution for the Education program in Chongwe. We became fast friends.

I have put off explaining exactly what World Bicycle Relief, the organization I am interning for here in Lusaka, does specifically. I will procrastinate no further. WBR, as the title implies, gives bikes to impoverished Africans. However, in order for the reader to properly understand WBR I must first describe the current state of transportation and then the bicycle market in Zambia. 

Only rich Zambians own cars. And only relatively wealthy or fortunate Zambians own bicycles. Especially in rural places, the bicycle is a status symbol, the mark of someone doing well. The "natural bicycle", or transport by foot, is the most common way from A to B for rural people here. In this context, with most people walking their goods to market, or walking to the clinic procure AIDS medicines, the bicycle becomes an incredible tool of empowerment. It gets you from A to B 4 times faster with however many times the payload capacity. The benefit of owning a operational bicycle is intuitive and powerful. 

Now, for those who haven't been to Zambia it might seem like a given that the bikes people buy or receive would be of at least decent quality. In fact, they are not. The bike companies that operate here are not Trek, Specialized, Cannondale or even Huffy.  Rather, they are Atlas, Eagle and other various Indian or Chinese brands you have never heard of. These bikes are manufactured as an afterthought, but a percentage of a percentage of the annual revenue for multinationals like Tata who have more interesting things to worry about than the unchanging low margin bicycle markets in impoverished sub-saharan Africa. The bicycles sold here are all knockoffs of the 1950s Raleigh Roadster, heavy as hell, impossible to steer and liable to break less than a month after purchase. Still people buy them because... these companies have no competition. They have no incentive to step up their design quality or manufacturing quality control or assembly quality control because they have a captive consumer with no alternatives. The quality of bicycles for sale here has not improved for 50 years. Conversely, the NGOs that simply give Africans second hand bikes do not import the quantity and quality of bicycles necessary to make a substantial impact. Enter WBR. 

WBR makes a brutishly strong and culturally appropriate bicycle that has already become synonymous with a excellence in the Zambian market. It built to balance the three overriding needs of the Zambian consumer,  durability, carrying capacity, and reasonable price. Additionally, WBR trains one bicycle mechanic per fifty bikes distributed or sold in order to keep the bikes operational. The organization has boiled its desired areas of affect down to healthcare, education and economic development. In each case, WBR has partnered with organizations in order to distribute its bicycles most effectively to those for whom the bicycle can unlock the most benefit. 

WBR partnered with RAPIDs, an NGO that empowers HIV/AIDs caregivers with healthcare supplies and training. RAPIDs saw a need to increase the agency of caregivers by providing them with bicycles. Initially, to meet this need RAPIDs bought a couple hundred cycles wholesale from local distribution outlets and met with disaster. The bikes promptly fell apart. They then partnered with WBR for 23,000 bikes and the program has been a qualitative and quantitative success, with visits per week skyrocketing and infection rates falling. It has been a real victory for both RAPIDs and WBR. 

WBR also partnered with Harmos, a micro finance NGO operating in Zambia to sell 3000 or so bicycles. This program has become more successful as time goes on and as lending techniques become more refined. The sale of an income-generating asset through micro finance is not new, however the sale of a bicycle via micro finance is (relatively). That fact coupled with the fact that Harmos is a young organization still perfecting its lending techniques made for a rocky start, however the program is now breaking even and appears to be set for expansion. It also has created an exciting template that could be used in other countries to empower micro entrepreneurs. 

Finally, WBR is just beginning a program in conjunction with the Ministry of Education to provide 50,000 bicycles to impoverished rural children who are at risk of dropping out of school due to the demands of their commute (sometimes up to 20 kms each way) and the demands of their home life (work around the house... not your typical chores). 

So there is the overview, I will follow in the future with what I am working on in my capacity as intern.